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^^ A sentence many a man has said over the years and continues to say to this day.

“I want to be lean and strong”

^^ Something I’m pleased to announce more women are saying, it seems there has been a shift in them saying ‘I just want to be skinny’ to now learning the benefit of being lean and strong, it’s great to see.

While it is only my opinion, I feel everybody should be strong.

I’m not talking about record breaking strong, just strong enough to stay healthy and stave off the effects of ageing on the body.

These sports all centre around lifting:

– Weightlifting (olympic lifting)

– Body Building

– Powerlifting

– Strongman

– CrossFit (some may not like this one)

Did you know lifting weights can have the following positive effects on the body:

Personally I’d say the mental improvement is the pivotal one as this can have the biggest impact on a persons life in a very positive way.

However….

If you’re not an athlete and lift for health/confidence you should do it because you enjoy it, not because you feel you have to, that’s the secret to balance and long term sustainability.

Don’t eat yourself up if you miss a session, chalk it up to life and sue it as a rest day, that way you’ll be more motivated when you get to go in, excited to train in fact. Keep this in mind and you’ll find you don’t fall out of love with training.

What if lifting isn’t for you?

That’s cool, find soothing you do enjoy, here are some other options for improving strength and all achieving all the other benefits mentioned above:

There are a great deal of programs floating around on the internet and today i’m going to give you another one to consider.

This will be one of several programs I will be writing for you that will help create a 12 week training cycle to help you add lean mass, strength, strip fat and feel much more confident because of the results you will achieve.

Today’s program will consist on what you will ideally be looking to do for the first 3 weeks of your training block. It will help you build a good foundation of lean mass while starting to bring up your base strength in preparation for the next 3 week block, here is what the basic outline of what the primary goals of each will look like:

Weeks 1-3 – Hypertrophy/Strength

Weeks 4-6 – Hypertrophy/Strength

Weeks 7-9 – Strength/Conditioning

Weeks 10-12 – Strength/Conditioning

The first 6 weeks is based on building the foundation, then the second 6 weeks will be about utilising/realising the strength you’ve gained from your newly built muscle to it’s full potential while also adding in some conditioning style work to help keep you lean and feeling ‘fit’ don’t worry if you think they will contradict each other, they won’t if programmed properly and the correct volume/approach is used.

So now you’ve got the basic idea shall we get started?

4-4-4 is the first method you will be using is based around the following:

– 4 Workout days per week

– 4 Exercises per workout

– 4 Sets with varying rep ranges

The days you workout are down to you, that could be Monday/Tuesday/Thursday/Friday or whatever.

As for exercises you will want to cover the full body in as little movements as possible, I will give you two guideline workouts A/B where you will hit all the major muscle groups, here they are:

Workout A –

– Front Squat

– Snatch Grip Deadlift

– Bent Over Row

– Supinated Grip Pull Up

Workout B –

– Press – Shoulder Width

– Bench Press – Medium (narrow is you want more triceps, wider if you want more chest)

*You can do which ever day you want first, it’s down to personal preference.

Now it’s time for the rep/set scheme I will recommend for you.

– 12,10,8,6

– Use a 4-1-1-1 tempo (4 second eccentric, 1 second pause, 1 second concentric, 1 second pause)

Suggested loading:

– 12 – 65%

– 10 – 70%

– 8 – 75%

– 6 – 80%

A very simple descending pyramid that will help you begin to build a base. As for a warm up I would advice doing what you need to do so that you feel mobile and ready, remember a good mobility routine will help you stay injury free and improve your performance and overall life for that matter (There are lots of options on YouTube, you’ve got a great book called Becoming a Supple Leopard and much more to get ideas from).

I can’t tell you your weights but the suggestion I have given will be a good starting point, but remember the stronger you get the higher these numbers will go, not only % wise but also because you will be able to lift more. Start off light so you have somewhere to go, if you start too heavy you will stagnate and can even get hurt if you’re not careful.

The above program is designed to be followed for 3 weeks, then you will move on to the second 3 week block which I will get uploaded in due course.

You will obviously need to know about nutrition as well, here is a good starting point for you:

LBMx 17-19 = Muscle Gain Caloric Range

Protein – LBM x1 = Grams per day, multiply this by 4 to get calories of protein for the day.

Carbs – Protein x1-3 = Grams per day (depending on style of training/overall daily activity, desk jockeys use x1, site workers use x3 and people in the middle use 1.5 or 2), multiply this by 4 to get calories of carbs for the day.

Fat – What ever calories are left divide them by 9 to get your fat in grams for the day.

Example Equation:

175lbs x 19 = 3325 total cals

175lbs x 1 = protein 175g x4 = 700 cals

175g x 2 = carbs 350g x 4 = 1400 cals

3325 – (700 + 1400) = 1225 cals

1225/9 = 136g fat

So these example calories/macros would be:

3225 Total Cal

175g Protein

350g Carbs

136g Fat

Get the idea?

*Eat mostly single ingredient whole foods to get the bulk of your calories, doing this will sort out your micronutrients without you having to worry too much. think 80/20 – 80% single ingredient foods 20% what ever you fancy. Just keep the callers correct and the overall macronutrient ratio sold and you can’t go far wrong.

Breakfast/AM – Fat/Protein

Snack/AM – Fat/Protein

Lunch/PM – Complex Carbs/Protein

Snack/PM – Complex Carbs/Protein

Dinner/PM – Complex Carbs/Protein

Post Workout Protein/Simple Carbs – regardless on time of day.

This will be a good place to start, you can make adjustments according to your own persona needs as you see fit.

You now have the first 3 weeks and some basic ideas for nutrition, it’s time to get in to the gym and start working (Y).